Many intelligent people in the nation's capital are still trying to understand how they did it, and no matter how many pencils and notepads it takes it is still nowhere near even money that they will come up with an explanation.

The record books will say a Jarrod Croker try in the 77th minute drew Canberra level at 22-22 and then Croker's conversion sealed the win 24-22, but they are just details.

"They knew exactly what they needed to do to get back in that game," Furner said.

Until then it had been the Roosters all night.

"That turned around, didn't it?" Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.

Until then the game looked set to be identified by a piece of vintage Sonny Bill Williams.

Sonny Bill Williams reacts during the loss to the Raiders.

With the Raiders finally entering the contest last night, fighting back from 16-0 down to 16-12, Williams picked up a loose ball and went on one of those long, loping and deceptive runs of his - and then finished it off with a classic one-handed round-the-corner pass that sent Anthony Minichiello over.

For one half of football the Roosters were challenging Manly as the dominant defensive unit in the competition.

While the Sea Eagles have kept their opponents scoreless in seven of the 10 halves they have played this year, the Roosters made many take notice by threatening to go three games in a row keeping their opponents to nil.

In 105 years of rugby league, only Eastern Suburbs in 1919 have managed to keep their opponents scoreless three games in a row.

It was so long ago that all three opponents, North Sydney (33-0), Western Suburbs (5-0) and Annandale (23-0), no longer exist.

Their shot at that record became confetti when Edrick Lee went over five minutes into the second half to narrow the deficit to 16-6.

Sandor Earl flies over for the Raiders.

It was the end of a run that had lasted 211 minutes without a point being scored - more than 3 1/2 hours - and which was set to explode.

The Lee try restored balance for the Raiders, who struggled to complete their sets through most of the first half.

After the kick-off they marched up field again, with Sam Williams holding the ball up against a retreating defence and, with a little show and go, slicing through several hesitant tackles to score next to the posts and reduce the margin even further, to 16-12.

And while the Roosters scored the Minichiello try in between, a Sandor Earl try with 14 minutes to go lit up the last quarter hour.

And then came Croker.

Dane Tilse is brought down by the Roosters defence.

As a spectacle, it was the saving of the match.

Despite all the Raiders' early possession it was the Roosters who opened the scoring. How often does it happen this way?

With one of their few tours into Canberra territory in the first 20 minutes, the five tackles were played out and the Roosters sent the ball high in the air.

Croker was the man underneath it and he might, or might not, have knocked it on. It appeared that he didn't, the crowd felt he didn't and Croker thought he didn't - but the referees believed he did.

Two tackles later James Maloney was barrelling over with a Raider hanging off each limb but none of them able to stop him.

With the conversion, the Roosters led 6-0. The crowd expressed its disagreement with a "bullshit" chant, one last heard around these parts during Question Time.

It opened the way for the class of the Roosters to shine through.

Taking back a more even share of possession, they began marching over the Raiders, whose bullets, for the time being, were all fired. Tries to Michael Oldfield and Mitch Aubusson extended the lead.

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